Of "knowns" and "unknowns...."

OVERLOAD!

When sitting in some kind of adult learning situation trying to learn something – a new piece of software, the latest regulatory changes to impact your field or even just learning what and how a coworker does in her job so you can cover her duties while she’s on vacation – have you ever felt like so much new information was coming your way that your head was about to explode from it all?

Learning theory types call this cognitive overload. This is the condition where your brain has way too much new stuff coming at it way too fast to process, archive and tag it all for later recall.

As educators/teachers/trainers/Workplace Learning Professionals/Whatever New Buzzword our profession is referred to by, we need to stay cognizant of this problem and do everything we can to prevent this condition in our learners. But, how to do that effectively is the challenge.

As a solution, I’d suggest taking advantage of the Law of Primacy. That’s the Learning Law that says that, being people, the things we all learned first are those that create the strongest impressions in our minds. In other words, what we learn first is what is learned best (lasts the longest in our memories).

Another variant of this idea is to say that what people already know has a more permanent position in their minds than the new information or skill that they’re learning does.

So, let’s take advantage of that by teaching “from knowns to unknowns.” That’s perhaps just a fancy way of saying let’s narrow down what we’re trying to teach them by focusing on what might be different about the new material from what they already know. 

Some examples to help illustrate the point:

• “Remember how Microsoft Word used to have file extensions of .doc? Well in those created using Microsoft Word 2007, they’re .docx files now – the ‘x’ at the end meaning…..”
• “You know how the umptywidget in the Acme models works, right? Well, that same component in the Binford models works exactly the opposite of that.”  
• “Most of the new employee health insurance package is the same as it used to be. But, here’s the 3 things that are different in the new plan….”

Taking learners from their knowns to the unknowns (new stuff) builds on what they already know (the Law of Primacy) and reduces the quantity of the new material coming at them (reducing cognitive overload).  This makes for a far more comfortable, effective and enjoyable learning and teaching experience.



Graphic source: My own creation in PowerPoint.